Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Saab Automobile’s two biggest unions
said they’re likely to ask a court to put the cash-starved
Swedish carmaker into bankruptcy in about two weeks unless
salaries are paid by then.

Saab, which is scheduled to pay factory workers tomorrow
and administrative employees Aug. 26, said yesterday that it may
be forced to postpone wage payments as “committed” funds from
investors may not arrive in time. Saab paid salaries about a
week late in June and July.

Any delay in the August payments will prompt the unions
immediately to start a process aimed at ensuring state coverage
of wages in the event of the carmaker’s failure, officials from
the IF Metall and Unionen labor groups said. The unions, after
gaining employees’ backing, would first file payment requests
with Saab. If salaries remain unpaid in seven days, the unions
may then ask a district court to declare Saab bankrupt.

“We must start the process, as there’s no alternative to
our moving to protect our members’ wages,” Veli-Pekka Saikkala,
head of salary negotiations at IF Metall’s headquarters in
Stockholm, said today by telephone. “Later, if we don’t see a
solution, we’ll likely be forced to act.”

The automaker, which General Motors Co. sold last year,
halted production in late March amid a cash crunch, and the
factory at Saab’s Trollhaettan, Sweden, headquarters has been
quiet since early June. Saab is trying to raise more funds and
has said it aims to restart manufacturing in a few weeks.
Sweden’s Debt Enforcement Agency started a collection process on
Aug. 16 after Saab missed a deadline to pay suppliers.

‘Hopeful’ of Resolution

“We haven’t decided if we would file for bankruptcy but
that would be a natural part of the process,” Anette Hellgren,
Unionen’s representative at the carmaker, said by telephone.
“We’re taking one day at a time and are still hopeful it won’t
come to that.”

Saab is “doing everything we can to prevent salaries being
paid late this time, but there’s still a risk that will
happen,” Eric Geers, a spokesman at the carmaker, said in a
phone interview today. “Paying the salaries is our No. 1
priority, and our second priority is to restart production.”

Swedish Automobile NV, Saab’s Dutch owner, fell as much as
6.6 percent to 55 cents and was down 3.2 percent as of 13:29
p.m. in Amsterdam. The stock has plunged 84 percent this year,
valuing the Zeewolde, Netherlands-based sports-car manufacturer
at 13.2 million euros ($19.1 million).